HIGHTSTOWN — Councilman Mike Vanderbeck’s hopes of appearing on the ballot in Hightstown’s borough council race as an independent candidate were dashed this week when his petition to run for the spot was denied by Mercer County Clerk Paula Sollami Covello.

The denial Monday was based on a recent amendment to a state statute that lays out New Jersey’s election laws, Sollami Covello said.

The change, which was enacted in July, gives candidates 10 fewer days to file candidacy petitions with the office than the law allowed before the amendment — in this case, moving the deadline from Sept. 15 to 6, she said.

Though Vanderbeck had been offered the chance to run for council as a Democrat in June, he said in an email that he was not interested in pursuing the office at all until Hurricane Irene, which hit the borough hard.

“Irene and the aftermath was the only reason,” he wrote in the email. “We all have been very involved in getting us back to operational status.”

Still, he said, the rejection of his petition came as a surprise.

An email he received from a county elections office employee, dated Sept. 13, had advised him that the last filing day was Sept. 15.

“(The employee) obviously wasn’t quoting the correct statute or wasn’t aware of the updated change to the law, and there’s no discretion on our part to overstep the law. The law is the law.”

Vanderbeck’s 11th-hour attempt to enter the race as an independent had surprised many Democrats in the borough. Vanderbeck had been chosen for his council seat in April after former councilman Dimitri Musing unexpectedly resigned.

Vanderbeck was one of three nominees picked as Musing’s potential replacement by the Hightstown Democratic Committee and he went on to get the job after receiving a majority vote from the council.